ZORO II wireless Bluetooth headphone review
Testing out a new pair of Bluetooth headphones is always a pleasure. It’s made even better when there is something about those headphones that I have never tried before. When Noontec approached me to review their ZORO II Wireless headphones, the feature that first caught my eye was their aptX Lossless support.
aptX Lossless is a variant of the aptX Bluetooth codec. It is specifically engineered to provide the highest quality audio signal possible over Bluetooth. aptX, is a high fidelity, low latency audio codec that is designed to allow near CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.
aptX itself can only provide quality to the audio transmission. The sound still comes from hardware inside the headphones. This includes the DAC, amplifier and speakers themselves. Though aptX can’t make up for shortcomings in this hardware, the licensing requirements needed to utilize aptX mean that it’s supporting devices are more likely to feature hardware of a high enough quality to take advantage of aptX. It is my hope that the ZORO II Wireless headphones will have the caliber of hardware necessary to truly make use of the aptX codec.
The ZORO II packaging is clean and minimal. The white box features a fold open flap to expose a window though which you can see the headphones themselves. Once opened you will find the headphones folded for travel. After you remove the headphones you will see a soft velvet bag for carrying, a USB to micro-USB charging cable and a flat male to male audio cable with push button controls. The latter allows you to use the headphones with a wired connection.
The Zorov II Wireless are marketed as fashion hi-fi headphones. To that end, they have a very modern style. The outside is a shiny black plastic with brushed aluminum plates covering the ears and a small band around each side of the frame. The interior is made up of a red mate plastic and faux leather. An interior aluminum band runs the length of the frame to provide strength and flexibility. Pressing firmly on the arms will pop them unlocked and they will fold in on themselves. This allows the ZORO II to fold up into a very compact package for travel. The arms also telescope to fit my big fat head. The ear cups are mounded on henge joints that can pivot slightly in all directions. This helps them form a good seal on your ears. It does however cause a bit of a plastic creaking noise when you move them around. It’s noticeable but nothing you will hear once you’re wearing them.
The closed back, on ear design does a decent enough job of isolating sound from around you. I’m not generally a fan of on ear headphones but these were more comfortable than I expected. Weighing in at only 190 grams, these headphones are lite enough that they rest comfortably on your head. The frame doesn’t pinch the head very tightly and that is a good thing for comfort but leaves them feeling a bit loose. Quick movement will cause them to slide around on your head. The soft ear pads go a long way to making the ZORO II a comfortable fit, but after a few hours of wear they did make my ears a bit warm. This was nothing I wouldn’t expect from every other on ear headphones.
With their light weight, I didn’t expect the battery of the ZORO II Wireless to live up to its rated 35 hours. However, in my testing I was able to get just over 36 hours of continuous audio playback at medium high volume. This is the best battery life I have seen in any of the Bluetooth headphones I have tested to date.
NFC pairing was lighting quick and simple as can be. I had never used NFC before but I tapped a Lumia 640 against the left ear of the Zoro II and the phone was immediately paired. Manual pairing was easy as well. I held the power button for 3 seconds and a green light started flashing rapidly on the left ear cup. Seconds later the device showed up in my iPhone’s Bluetooth pairing list. One tap and we were ready to go. After that, reconnecting was as simple as turning the headphones back on. They can be paired with up to 8 devices at a time and even support multipoint pairing, with 2 devices connected at once.
The bottom of the left ear cup hold the 3.5 mm jack used to attach the cable for wired use. On the back of the left ear you will find a multi-function button and a set of four led lights. Holding this button down will turn the headphones on and off, tapping it will play or pause your music and double tapping it will cause the four LEDs above to light up indicating the power level of the headphones battery.
The micro-USB charging port is located on the bottom right ear cup. Moving to the back of this ear you will find up and down buttons that, when pressed, control the volume. Holding these buttons for a full second will skip forward or backwards. These controls are all very intuitive and conveniently placed so they are easy to reach. The buttons are raised and made of a tacky rubber that grips your fingers. This makes them easy to find while you are wearing the headphones.
To test out the ZORO II sound I used my standard headphone testing playlist. This is a Spotify playlist downloaded at 320 kbit/s. It features 35 tracks covering a wide variety of different genres. Some tracks are just examples of a genre and others are examples of technical features like exemplary stereo separation. To make sure I was getting the most these headphones had to offer I switched from testing on my usual iPhone to a Lumia 640. I did this because the Lumia supports aptX and the iPhone does not.
The ZORO II have a crisp, clean sound that is mostly well balanced. The treble is crystal clear and smooth without being overly sharp. In Citizen Cope’s Sideways, acoustic guitar comes though with such clarity that you can hear as his fingers brush against each string in the chords. The mids and highs are very well represented here. When the bass notes come in, it floods your head with sound. The bass is punchy but a little light. It doesn’t really reach the sub bass end of the spectrum. It isn’t lacking, if anything it is well balanced and even. It just doesn’t have the exaggerated low bass that is so prevalent today with headphones like Beats.
Massive Attack’s Angel truly feels epic in scale. The bass ebbs and flows throughout the song. The snare hits high and almost a little harsh. When the guitar crashes in it is full of distortion and noise. All this and the vocals stay clear and crisp. The song almost leaves you spent as it comes to its conclusion. Just before the last notes, I could hear a faint guitar lick, off to the right, that I had never noticed before.
Balance is the key in PANTyRAID’s new single Wanting Moves. Leading in with sharp snaps and a wandering keyboard, a bass drum enters the mix to establish a bottom end that is solid and feels full. That is until the first line of the chorus finishes and a grungy key smashes though with more power than you though the track had left to give. As I said before, the ZORO II aren’t bass heavy but they aren’t lacking either.
The sound stage of Cake’s The Distance is spacious. Guitars are just around your ears. The bass sits behind you. Horns are clearly forward and the chorus is slightly off to your right. Every instrument has it’s place and you can almost feel the band around you.
Also showing off the impressive sound stage, Peeping Tom’s Mojo is full of depth. The initial beat boxing has this really awesome effect where all the sample is coming from the center but the beats bounce back and forth from left to right. Each note is completely isolated to on ear. The snare sounds ring though only on the right ear. A subtle chorus echoes the whole sound in both ears, tying everything together. After that, the beat boxing moves to the left front part of the stage while a high hat taps a rhythm in the mid center. The main guitar riff and bass line sit firmly in the middle of the stage but the base is noticeably further forward. The intro ends and pulls all of the instruments to near center for a much more contained feeling of space.
After making their way though all 35 tracks, the Zoro II Wireless could be the most well balanced Bluetooth headphones I’ve seen yet. Their sound is crisp and clean with enough bass to fill out most of the bottom end but focusing much more on punchy treble that really makes rock rock. The sound quality is very impressive, especially considering the price point. With a retail price of $199, Amazon currently sells them for $149.99. The ZORO II are priced well below the likes of their competition from Beats or Bose. If you are looking for a good pair of wireless headphones with amazing battery life and crisp clean audio, that doesn’t fill its sound stage with muddy bass, the ZORO II Wireless are a great choice.
